Today the final verdict of the case between Nine Network and IceTV was handed down by Justice Annabelle Bennett at the Federal Court of Australia in Sydney, she said that IceTV in repurposing television program information, was not actually engaged in broadcasting but representing information that was not the copyright of the nine network.
Nine had claimed an electronic program guide produced by Sydney company IceTV, for use in PCs and digital video recorders, breaches copyright by reproducing the scheduling and titles of Nine's TV programs. IceTV has been fighting the claim. Opening arguments began in Sydney's Federal Court before Justice Annabelle Bennett on the 16th of October 2006 and ran for Six days. At the heart of the case is the potential to make it easier for viewers to "time shift", or record and watch multiple programs at any time. Commercial networks are concerned this allows them to skip advertisements. IceTV's subscriber-based guide allows consumers who own digital video recorders with built-in TV tuners to more easily program their DVR to record and view shows. But commercial networks have refused to give programming information to IceTV, which collects it from other sources.
Shortly after the verdict had been handed down Colin O'Brien, Chief exec of IceTV said: "this is a great win. We will now engage in dialogue with several major vendors who want to take our service". Presumably Media Center - HP - LG Topfeild and many others, O'Brien also said: "During the past 18 months, we have burnt up a lot of money running our operation, awaiting this decision. We will not refloat the business immediately." He added: "I believe that the free to air networks will now make their content available to everybody. However, we are very close to rolling out an EPG service via a web browser, as the future is IPTV, including channels that will compete head-on with free-to-air networks in Australia. We can provide a service to these organisations."
